Re: Behaviour of Build / Configure in GNU programs

[Karl Berry]

    How about appending this clarification:

I think such an attempted clarification just adds confusion, actually.
The whole node (Releases) is clearly about tarball releases, not
building from a development repository tree.

Anyway, your first hunk looks good to me:

--- standards.texi      23 Apr 2015 15:48:55 -0000      1.242
+++ standards.texi      8 Jul 2015 01:01:56 -0000
@@ -4082,6 +4082,11 @@
 major version and a minor.  We have no objection to using more than
 two numbers, but it is very unlikely that you really need them.
 
+Making a release means providing a package for distribution.  If you
+use a version control system, you might also want to tag the point in
+the history where the release was made.  But this in itself is not
+sufficient.
+
 Package the distribution of @code{Foo version 69.96} up in a gzipped tar
 file with the name @file{foo-69.96.tar.gz}.  It should unpack into a
 subdirectory named @file{foo-69.96}.

I'd just word the second a little differently:

jd> Don't allow any part of the build or configure process to open a 
jd> network connection in order to download files remotely (or for any other 
reason).
jd> The distribution should successfully build on a machine disconnected 
jd> from the internet.
-
kb> The configure and make process for building the distribution should
kb> not require a network connection (e.g., to download files).  The
kb> distribution should successfully build on a machine disconnected
kb> from the Internet.

FWIW ...